Page One
Early settler was a first in many ways
Berkeley Observed
Looking back, seeing ahead
The Italianate-style house once at 1313 Oxford St. was built by Napoleon Bonaparte Byrne about1880. Behind the house were the grassy north Berkeley hills. Surrounding the garden was a white picket fence to keep cows out of the flower or vegetable beds. This style of house was very popular in the 1880s, but only two are still standing in this north Berkeley area. One is located at 1423 Oxford St. and the other is at 1427 Walnut St.
Byrne was an early settler to Berkeley. In 1859 he brought his family, two freed slaves – the first African Americans to live in Berkeley – and a herd of cattle to California from Missouri. By 1860 he had purchased over 800 acres of land along Codornices Creek for a farm. Byrne must have been successful as a farmer because in 1868 he built a grand house (also no longer standing) just down the street from the one at 1313 Oxford St.
The lure of richer farm land in the San Joaquin Delta enticed Byrne to start a second farm on Venice Island. But after three years of building dikes and preparing the soil this enterprise failed when the river flooded and ruined the dikes.
When Byrne returned to Berkeley he began selling off pieces of his Berkeley property. He sold his large house to Henry Berryman, an enterprising Berkeley developer, around 1880 and built this smaller house down the street. Byrne served as the postmaster of Berkeley from 1885 until his death in 1905.
Byrne’s wife Mary, who died in 1874, wrote letters to her family about her journey west and life in California. Many of these letters survive in the Bancroft Library on the UC Berkeley campus.
Susan Cerny writes Berkeley Observed in conjunction with the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association. BAHA will hold its annual house tour May 6. Call 841-2242 for information.
